War at Night

Yuun had secured both supply packs, while the last one was still being fought over. In a melee involving nearly a hundred people, injuries were practically inevitable. In just a few dozen seconds, Yuun had spotted four unlucky students who had been injured badly enough to withdraw. In such chaos, individual ability mattered very little—at least among people who were all roughly on the same level.

Quantity led to qualitative change. Yuun had no interest in the final supply pack; the price required to seize it was far too high. Their group of three already had three supply packs, which was a good haul. If he really wanted to rob someone, he might as well target Itachi's two teammates. Itachi plus two deadweights still did not amount to a fighting force Yuun needed to fear. Taking theirs would mean double the benefits.

Having decided to give up on the final supply pack, Yuun headed back the way he had come to meet up with Hana Inuzuka. Along the way, he also robbed a few people who had been catching fish. Without suitable tools, they had worked for ages and only caught four small fish, which Yuun casually took as he passed by.

Yuun returned fully loaded and received a warm welcome from Hana Inuzuka. In particular, she immediately confiscated the beef jerky in the two supply packs, having long been drooling over it. Gekko Hayate, meanwhile, was quite interested in the four fish Yuun had brought back. After asking Yuun's permission, he skillfully cleaned them, set up the cooking gear, and began stewing fish soup.

With enough beef jerky to feed the three of them for seven days, Hana could finally eat to her heart's content. The three got along fairly well, and children their age made friends easily. Even Hana, who had initially found Gekko Hayate unpleasant to look at, no longer barked orders at Hayate at every turn.

After eating and packing up, the three discussed their night watch schedule. Hana would take the first half of the night, Hayate the second half, Yuun the first half of the following night, and Hana the second half. After that, the rotation would continue with Hayate, Yuun, and Hana.

"What a pity we can't bring ninja hounds. If the Grey Maru Brothers were here, would this be such a hassle?" Hana said unhappily.

Yuun could only smile helplessly. Hana's three ninja hounds had absurdly high combat power. One-on-one, they might not be a match for a Genin, but if all three attacked together, even a Chunin would find them troublesome. Though close combat was Yuun's specialty, he did not dare guarantee that he could defeat those three dogs. Fortunately, ninja hounds had their limits. Their spiritual energy was extremely limited, and at most they could reach the level of Black Maru, Inuzuka Tsume's hound, who was comparable to a Chunin. Otherwise, the Inuzuka Clan could practically prop up an entire ninja village with their dogs.

Under normal standards, Genin were expected to wield chakra skillfully and fight across all terrain; tree climbing and water walking were merely the basics. Chunin were expected to master one or more chakra nature transformations and possess a certain degree of leadership and decisiveness. Jonin, meanwhile, were expected to master two or more chakra nature transformations and possess the strategic vision to command a small-scale war. Of course, some ninja had only one attribute, while others used Kekkei Genkai or various secret techniques, so those standards could not be applied directly to them.

After assigning their duties, Hayate was about to return to his makeshift tent to rest when Yuun took out a waterproof blanket and a sleeping bag from a supply pack and tossed them to him. "Catch. These are yours."

Hayate caught the waterproof blanket and froze for a moment before waving at Yuun. "Thanks."

"Hmph." Hana, who had just been chatting and laughing with Hayate, suddenly got angry. She turned away and ignored Yuun.

"Don't be angry. This one's yours." Yuun handed the other waterproof blanket to Hana. "The wind gets strong at night. Cover yourself so you don't catch a cold."

"What about you?" Hana was so moved that her eyes glistened with tears. Children really were easy to appease.

"I have a sleeping bag, hahaha." Unfortunately, Yuun shattered Hana's gratitude in an instant. After standing there blankly for a long while, Hana suddenly remembered something.

"Ah! Hyuga Yuun! I'm going to kill you!" The shrill female scream instantly woke the forest, which had already fallen asleep for the night. The birds were startled awake, and their miserable cries made those who had been roused but were still groggy realize what was happening. Soon, countless sharp and grating shouts and curses rang out from every corner of the forest, frightening awake even more birds and wandering beasts, as if the entire forest had come alive.

Quite a few students who had suffered losses fighting over supply packs during the day took the chance to vent their frustration. Some had even had their rations stolen and were currently going hungry, planning to withdraw from training the next day. Thinking, If I'm miserable, none of you get to have it easy either, they also began making noise. Worse still, some students who simply loved chaos joined in. As for who had started it all, what they were arguing about, and who else cared?

Itachi, who was briefing more than a dozen people in a hidden corner, revealed a helpless bitter smile. At this rate, no one would be sleeping tonight.

Just as Itachi expected, this group of students, who had just suffered a little hardship and had nowhere to vent it, really did make noise all night. The next day, aside from the unlucky students whose rations had been stolen, another dozen or twenty people applied to withdraw. If they could make such a commotion last night, tonight probably would not be peaceful either. With no rest at night and the need to constantly guard against attacks during the day, even real ninja could not endure such days for long, much less rookies who had only trained for about a year.

Yuun's expression was not much better. His adaptability was decent, but he genuinely could not sleep through noise like last night's. Even plugging his ears had been useless; the droning never stopped. Not even a busy marketplace was as terrifying as the forest had been last night. More than a hundred people had worked together to cause trouble, and some were especially despicable. They did not take the lead while everyone else was being loud, but once the noise quieted enough for people to barely fall asleep, they started exerting themselves, shouting and yelling to wake those who had just drifted off. They had kept it up all night. Some had even used props. Yuun was certain he had heard firecrackers, and not ordinary ones either—at least the kind that exploded twice. Who knew how they had brought those in? Did the inspectors not care?

When dawn came, Yuun's expression turned even uglier. After taking a lap around the area, he discovered at least three groups making noise-making tools. Some had only three to five people, while others had dozens, and their tools came in all varieties. The simplest ones merely rolled up a large leaf into a horn. More advanced groups were carving what looked like whistles from wood. A few of the most despicable ones were even dismantling cooking gear and mess tins to make gongs! Just imagining those gongs ringing out after everything went quiet gave Yuun a headache.

Yet Yuun did not dare go over and stop them, because Itachi was among those dozens of people. If it had only been Itachi and a dozen or so cannon fodder, Yuun would have dared to charge in. But against several dozen people, he would rather not. Yesterday, dealing with those dozen or so people had cost Yuun at least sixty percent of his chakra. Without Itachi, he could barely manage to take Hana and deal with those dozens. With Itachi there, it was different. Given Itachi's strength and brains, one careless mistake and Yuun would end up being dealt with by Itachi instead.

When he returned and told Hana and Hayate about it, both were indignant. Neither of them had been able to sleep last night either. Hana in particular, as the instigator, had suffered badly. Not only was her sense of smell excellent, but her hearing was also far sharper than that of ordinary people. Under normal circumstances, that was naturally an advantage. But in a situation like last night's, that advantage had become a disadvantage.